I.—4a.

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177. I think you said it is eighteen months since you were elected to the directorate of one of the companies; you have been drawing directors' fees all the time?—We were prepared for the companies going into liquidation, and were prepared to forego directors' fees. 178. You say it is a standing rule that all calls should be paid before a transfer of the shares is made ?—That is so. 179. And you depended on the secretary to the company to see to that?— Yes. 180. Who was the secretary?— Mr. Hoisted. 181. Who is Mr. Hoisted ?—He is an accountant. 182. Was he carrying on business on his own account then ? —At the time referred to he was accountant to Cook and Gray. 183. Cook and Gray were the vendors ?—Yes ; at any rate, they were among the vendors. 184. You told Mr. Cook that you had lost a good deal of money in mining, but you did not cry over it. Did you ever lose money in a company which had never had a title to a claim?—No ; not that I am aware of. 185. These companies under review now have not titles to their claims ?—We are not aware of that. 186. You drew directors' fees, and did not take the trouble to find out whether the thing was good or not. Now, at the time of allotting the shares in the Lees Ferry Company, did you find that the subscribed capital was sufficient ? —At that time we did not know what sort of a claim it was. We did not know what kind of a dredge was required. It was understood that the capital might be enough, but when we looked into the matter we found that more would be wanted. 187. You have practically admitted that you have been very reckless and careless in your management as a director? —No; I do not admit that. 188. Is it not a fact that you altogether trusted in, and left everything to, Mr. Cook ?—Not at all. We have not entrusted anything to him in connection with the management of the companies. 189. At the time of allotting the shares, were they all applied for ?—He was not present. 190. At the time of allotting the shares, were all the shares applied for ?—The provisional directors did that. 191. Do you know how many of the provisional directors signed the articles of association?— There should have been seven. 192. How many of them took up shares ?—I could not tell you. 193. Hon. Mr. McGoioan] Your opinion is that it was the duty of the solicitor to the companies of which you were a director to see that the titles to the claims were correct ?—That is so. 194. You assumed that they were correct, because you left that to the solicitor ?—Yes. 195. What is your opinion of the duties of the directors of a company? —They should do the other portion of the management. 196. Will you please describe that other portion?—To see that a dredge is put on, and all that sort of thing. We always looked to the solicitor to look after the titles, or anything of that kind. 197. Putting aside the question of titles, what is your opinion of the duties of the directors? — They should look after the other part of the business. 198. What is that " other part" ? —To look after the transfer of shares, and all business that might come before the company. 199. In looking after the transfer of shares, was it a rule, in the companies of which you were a director, to see that the liabilities on shares to be transferred were paid before any transfer took place ? —Certainly. 200. Did you do that ? —We do that always. 201. Did you do it in the instance which has been referred to? —The chairman looked after it. The board of directors should do that always. 202. Did your board of directors see that all liabilities on shares to be transferred were paid? —As far as lam aware, we did. 203. Do you still say that, after the evidence which has been given with reference to transfers of shares being made on which calls were owing ? —We might not have gone into the particular case which has been mentioned. 204. Then* your statement that the directors carried out their duty in seeing that the liabilities on shares that were to be transferred were paid, is not correct ?—We might not have done our duty as well as we should have done ; we relied on the secretary to put the matter before us in the usualform —namely, that transfers should not be placed before the directors unless the calls on the shares to be transferred were paid. 205. Did you, as directors, give the secretary any instructions to that effect? —No, not that I am aware of. 206. When you made a call after the allotment, in the case of the Tucker Flat Company, what was the object in making the call?—lt was intended to get a dredge put on the claim. 207. Did you expect that a two-shilling call would enable you to put a dredge on? —We intended to increase the capital. 208. You say that you made the call in order to put a dredge on the claim ; did you expect a call of 2s. per share would enable you to put a dredge on ?—No ; we intended to make more calls. We thought that we might get a dredge cheap. 209. In the meantime was not the money that came in as the result of that 25.-per-share call distributed in payment of fees to the directors and salary to the secretary ?—Yes, and in prospecting, and so on. 210. What prospecting was done during the time that you had no dredge? —We spent a-lot of money in prospecting; I think the amount paid for prospecting the Tucker Fat property was £113, and we had prospecting done in connection with some other companies. 211. In short, the money derived from the call of 2s. per share in the Tucker Flat Company,